The UK newspapers

MASS MEDIA IN THE UK

The mass media in the UK are represented mainly by the press (newspapers and magazines), TV and radio.

The UK newspapers

In the UK there are no official government newspapers. The government does not exercise any official control over the newspaper industry and most of the English newspapers are very proud of their individual styles.

UK newspapers are generally grouped into three, rather historical, groups – mass markettabloids, or red-tops, middle-market tabloids, and quality broadsheets.

Quality newspapers are serious, national, daily newspapers, appealing mainly to the upper and middle classes. They are usually published in a broadsheet format *. They are “ Financial Times ”, “ The Times ”, “ The Guardian ”, “ The Daily Telegraph ”. “ The Daily Telegraph” contains reports on national and international news, gives a full covering of sports and other topics. “ Financial Times ” is read mainly by professional and business people as it contains a comprehensive coverage of industry, commerce and public affairs. “ The Guardian ” gives a wide coverage of news events and reports on social issues, the arts, education, etc. “ The Times ” is the most famous newspaper. It represents the views of the establishment and is well-known for its correspondence column.

In October 2003, quality broadsheet “ The Independen t” began producing what it preferred to call a compact edition – tabloid sized** – along with the main broadsheet sized newspaper. This had a stunning effect on circulation – sales went up by 20% year-on-year – and “ The Times ” followed suit launching its own compact edition. Both newspapers are now exclusively available in compact form.

“ The Guardian ”, which denounced the original shift to compact, is now thought to be switching to a mid-size format between tabloid and broadsheet, known as the “ Berliner ”. This format is also possibly to be used by “ The Daily Telegraph ”, though their ownership changes have caused a delay in their adoption.

The mass-market tabloids. Unlike quality newspapers popular newspapers are not so serious and their stories tend to be sensational. The two most-popular newspapers are “ The Sun” and “ The Daily Mirror ”. Bitter rivals, the papers until recently held very differing political views – “ The Sun ” being Conservative (right-wing) since the early 70’s, while “ The Mirror ” was Labour (left-wing). Both now appear to support Labour. Historically, “ The Sun ” appears to support the current government.

With the mass-market tabloids, just as in other areas of life, sex sells. “ The Sun ” is home of the famous Page Three girl*** – an idea used by “ The Mirror ” for a while, but dumped in the 1980’s. “ The Daily Star ”, a sister paper for the Daily Express (originally launched to use spare capacity in the Express printing presses), gives its readers regular “StarBirds”**** throughout its pages and the advertising catch-phrase “Oooh Ahhh Daily Star” (and is, incidentally, a relative success in comparison to “The Express”).

The middle-market tabloids, “ The Daily Mail ” and “ The Daily Express ” are concerned with a very different readership – that of affluent women. Weekend supplements and carefully-placed sponsorship ensure that these titles are a cheap alternative to a magazine, while sports supplements aimed at the husband aim to broaden their readership. “ The Daily Mail ” has a staunch right-wing agenda, and is lampooned by some for their over alarmist headlines, particularly about political asylum seekers. However, its formula, said by former owner Lord Northcliffe to give his readers a “daily hate”, has made “ The Daily Mail ” one of the most popular newspapers in the UK.

The broadsheets are probably the most famous to readers overseas. “ The Times ”, the UK’s oldest national newspaper, is not the most popular – that accolade falls to “ The Daily Telegraph ”. It’s important to notice, though, that the mass-market tabloids sell up to four times as many copies as the broadsheets.

Many of these daily newspapers have their Sunday counterparts, such as “The Sunday Times”, “The Sunday Telegraph”, “The Observer” (sister paper of “the Guardian”), “Independent on Sunday”, “Sunday Express”, etc. The national Sunday titles usually have a different layout and style to their weekly sister papers, and are produced by separate journalistic and editorial staff. They are often larger in size and thicker, contain a lot of supplementary sections and are more colourful.

All the major UK newspapers currently have websites, which provide mostly free access to the content published in their print editions, as well as additional material.

A relatively recent phenomenon in the newspaper industry has been the free morning papers. Free weekly papers are fairly common, supported by advertising and carrying little in the way of editorial. But now, with the launch of Associated’s “ Metro ” in London, Birmingham and Leeds, a sister paper called “ News ” in Manchester, plus Manchester’s own “ Metro News ” and similar titles in Tyneside, Edinburgh and Glasgow, these newspapers thrive on public transport and in busy cities. Giving editorial almost as good as the paid-for dailies, these are a threat to the established titles.

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